MINI Clubman Rickshaws running around Beijing

The rickshaw is a time-honored method of transportation in China. While the vehicles were initially pulled around by men on foot, the pedal-powered versions have grown much more popular in recent years and are a symbol of Chinese culture. When Beijing MINI needed an interesting way to communicate that the Clubman model was being introduced in Chinese, especially in light of all the media attention on the Olympics, it back-halved a slew of new Clubmans, mounted a pedicab front-end and sent them out for business.

According to China Car Times, MINI's publicity stunt is working exactly as planned. Though the vast majority of media coverage is centered on those games from Greece, the MINI Rickshaws have managed to make some headlines of their own. We think the cabs turned out pretty cool, even incorporating the sunroof into the final design.

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Anonymous

6 Years Ago

Even if it were fiberglass those seats have to weigh a ton by themselfs. My guess would be some special gearing that could work somewhat like an automatic transmission that would shift gears, allowing easy pedaling even from a stop. It is something they are starting to introduce in current high end bikes I wouldnt see why Mini would try something like that.